Atlantic Whale Foundation

Infobox Non-profit
Non-profit_name = The Atlantic Whale Foundation
Non-profit_
Non-profit_type =
founded_date = 26 November 1999 [ [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?chyno=1076270] UK government database of registered charities. ]
founder = Ed Bentham
location = London, England
origins =
key_people = Ed Bentham
area_served =
product =
focus = Animal rights, Conservation, Environmentalism, Ecotourism
method = Education, Research, Awareness
revenue =
endowment =
num_volunteers = 20
num_employees =
num_members =
subsib =
owner = Ed Bentham
Non-profit_slogan = “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally."
homepage = [http://www.whalenation.org www.whalenation.org]
dissolved =
footnotes =

The Atlantic Whale Foundation, (AWF) is a conservation charity founded in London, England and based in Arona, Tenerife. Its motto is "The responsibility to defend nature belongs to each of us – as individuals".Founded in 1995 in London, England, the Atlantic Whale Foundation is a non profit, volunteer run organisation, and is funded mainly by the volunteers and public donations. Outside Tenerife, there are many affiliated projects around the world, dealing not only with conservation, but also humanitarian work, restoration, environmental and teaching based projects.

The AWF’s slogan is “Encouraging individuals to make a difference through positive action within communities, the environment and in nature, globally. “ This ideal is being realised via the Earth Ambassadors.

Launched 2004 the Earth Ambassadors aim to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and “inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and we help them in their work”. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=about_us] Whalenation website (about us). ]

Profile

The Atlantic Whale Foundation is a British registered charity (Number 1076270), registered office: St Martins House, 59 St Martins Lane, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 4JS. [ [http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?chyno=1076270] UK government database of registered charities. ] It was founded to continue the work of Spanish environmental agency, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife and works primarily towards helping to make Tenerife’s whale watching industry a global example of best practice. Activities revolve around education, conservation and research initiatives. The charity is volunteer led and funded via donations. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=about_us] Whalenation website (about us). ]

Volunteer Work

The core volunteer programme runs throughout the year in the research station in Arona, Tenerife. This facility is a charming old Canarian farm house which can accommodate approximately twenty people, most of whom will be co-ordinators or project leaders and Earth Ambassadors passing through. Volunteers work five days per week, which is divided between three or four days spent on the whale watching boats operating out of Los Gigantes, Los Cristianos and Playa las Americas and the rest of their time in the resource centre processing data, working on their particular project and assisting where their skills lend best. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=volunteering_opportunities] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities). ]

On the boats they assist our research guides in carrying out our research work and in handing out and talking through educational materials with the on-board tourists. They also integrate with the crew on a professional basis doing everything from helping to clean up, serve food and act as research guides. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=volunteering_opportunities] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities). ]

Volunteer areas include; Research, Art, Educational Workshops, Fund Raising, Media, Photography, Film, Internet Marketing, Conservation Initiatives, International Developments and Strategic Management. Volunteers are encouraged to find a project within one or more of these categories and to work on this during their stay. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=volunteering_opportunities] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities). ]

Campaigns and activism

The AWF hopes to see an end to captivity through raising awareness about cetaceans in captivity by educating the millions of passing tourists in Tenerife about the threats they face. These threats include; living in a chemically treated water environment, which can damage their skin and eyes and lead to chlorine poisoning and death, pneumonia, intestinal disease, ulcers, and other stress-related illnesses, including suspected suicide. Further threats are from the incorrect administration or insufficient knowledge of cetacean veterinary medicine. Additionally, the ingestion of foreign objects, such as coins, litter and small toys which may enter their pools is a problem particularly in petting pools. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=captivity] Whalenation website (captivity). ]

The AWF has been campaigning for years through an online petition to stop the Japanese and their allies from wresting control of the IWC (International Whaling Commission) [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Whaling_Commission] IWC Wikipedia] from the hands of the conservationists. They believe that this will result in a large scale resumption of the great whales at a time when many of these species and facing the possibility of extinction. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=conservation] Whalenation website (conservation). ]

Earth Ambassadors

As hundreds of incredible people had volunteered with the Atlantic Whale Foundation and its predecessor, Proyecto Ambiental Tenerife, it was possible to create a new project using the best and brightest ex-volunteers. This project works by sending out these individuals to countries of their choice, so that they can identify grassroots projects and provide effective funding methods to sustain these projects. [ [http://www.earthambassadors.org/] Earth Ambassadors]

The main aim of the Earth Ambassadors is to help develop the Global Project & Volunteer Database and to inspire countless thousands of others do something of their own; and help them in their work. [ [http://www.earthambassadors.org/] Earth Ambassadors ]

The World Project Database

The World Project Database is a free online database of international humanitarian, environmental and animal welfare related projects. This database was created to link people, like the AWF volunteers, to others who want to make a difference to volunteer opportunities all over the world. It was created by the Atlantic Whale Foundation’s volunteers looking for other volunteering projects that are liberating and life changing.

This database can be freely searched for a wide variety of affordable projects from saving the rainforests to researching humpback whales, restoring historical buildings to guarding turtle nesting beaches during the hatching season. In addition to volunteer opportunities they hope to help identify resource and funding needs that individuals or communities can help with and campaigning possibilities for individual projects. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=volunteering_new] Whalenation website (volunteer projects). ]

2008

The Atlantic Whale Foundation sets out to start this year with “clear vision, proven ideas, and strong networks and, critically, funding in place to make things happen.”

The Earth Ambassador Programme will consolidate in Sri Lanka [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=sri_lanka] Whalenation (Sri Lanka)] and visit a range of targeted countries to further develop the programme. Plans include Earth Ambassador visits to: Ecuador, Suriname, Argentina, Madagascar, Indonesia, Romania, Vietnam and India, as well as identifying grassroots projects in other countries through their various networks.

Funding Programmes: In Sri Lanka they are now in a position to enormously increase their fundraising [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=funraising] Whalenation website (Fundraising). ] capacity, both in terms of developing funding for core programmes and in identifying collaborators for specific projects such as tree planting initiatives [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=tree_planting_initiatives] Whalenation (tree planting initiatives)] and global resource centres [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=volunteering_opportunities] Whalenation website (volunteer opportunities). ]

Volunteering: they intend to consolidate the Tenerife volunteer programme as an example of ‘best practice’; and develop volunteer programmes in Sri Lanka; and initiate (also in Sri Lanka) the construction of a locally driven Community Resource Centre [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=global_resource_centres] Whalenation website (global resource centres). ] which, with volunteer [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=global_resource_centres] Whalenation website (global resource centres). ] accommodation attached, will drive local projects in a sustainable way.

D Nome Project [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=dnomeproject] Whalenation website (D. Nome project). ] they will develop research initiatives around the central concept of ‘talking with animals’ as a critical way of drawing people’s attention to the wonder of nature and, once achieved, to the need for all to take an individual responsibility for taking action. The focus will be on children and the development of children’s educational programmes based on the work they do. Initial research works will be with Dolphins (Tenerife) and Elephants (Sri Lanka) although the D.Nome project will become a central resource for projects working with animal communication globally- fascinating and hopefully inspirational stuff. There will be great emphasis on multimedia techniques in the communication of conservation issues.

Tenerife, as the core volunteer programme, will be consolidating its work in Tenerife as a focus of best practice and building it into a hub for a growing and global network of projects. Core objectives this year will be to publish quality books on the Pilot Whales of Tenerife (possibly also bottlenose dolphins of Los Gigantes) in collaboration with Sergio Hanquet [ [http://www.sergiohanquet.com] Sergio Hanquet] and incorporating the results of their photo identification work over the past twelve years. Also, they will be using this new database to facilitate interactive multimedia technology on key whale watching boats so individual and family details of whales identified from their fins whilst whale watching can be instantly displayed on board boats. Further, they will also be developing a local charity as an adjunct of AWF to facilitate fundraising in Tenerife. Finally, and as a core activity, they will be creating an eco-tourist web site for the island linking rural properties, local tourist assets such as bars, restaurants, museums etc with whale watching boats and other nature or cultural pursuits.

WhaleNation will progress by linking ethical whale watching eco-tourism around the world and a global resource for research, festivals, conservation, and research initiatives into cetaceans. [ [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp?page=2008glance] Whalenation website (2008 at a glance). ]

References

External links

* [http://www.whalenation.org/index.asp The Atlantic Whale Foundation's]
* [http://www.youtube.com/user/AWFFILMS The Atlantic Whale Foundation’s Youtube page]
* [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Atlantic-Whale-Foundation/21940042752 The Atlantic Whale Foundation’s Facebook page]